Lviv, Ukraine, Russian forces will observe a temporary cease-fire today in two Ukrainian cities, an official in one of the country’s pro-Russia separatist regions said, after an agreement to allow civilians to evacuate, collapsed a day earlier amid continued shelling and the flight of refugees to neighboring nations.
Eduard Basurin, the head of the military in separatist-held Donetsk, said safe passage corridors for residents of the besieged port city of Mariupol and the city of Volnovakha would reopen today. He did not say for how long nor whether a cease-fire would accompany the evacuation.
Ukrainian officials confirmed that evacuations from Mariupol would take place starting from 12 p.m. local time. Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, said a ceasefire would be in effect between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m.
More than 1.5 million refugees have crossed from Ukraine into neighboring countries since Russia invaded, the head of the United Nations’ refugee agency reported today.
A promised cease-fire in Mariupol failed amid scenes of terror yesterday (Saturday). Ukrainian officials said the evacuation was aborted because the city of 430,000 remained under attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for the failure and warned that the country’s ongoing resistance since Russia invaded its ex-Soviet neighbor on 24 February 2022 is putting the country’s future as a nation in jeopardy.
President Putin also hit out at Western sanctions that have crippled Russia’s economy and sent the value of its currency tumbling. likening to “declaring war.”
With the Kremlin’s rhetoric growing fiercer and a reprieve from fighting dissolving, Russian troops continued to shell encircled cities.
Today’s evacuations were announced along with a third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine. Davyd Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said the meeting would take place tomorrow (Monday). He gave no additional details, including the location of the talks.
Previous meetings held in Belarus had led to a cease-fire agreement to create humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of children, women and older people from Ukrainian cities, where pharmacies have run bare, hundreds of thousands face food and water shortages, and the injured have been succumbing to their wounds.
Source: Oman News Agency